It’s rather ironic that an album named Blood Of Your Empire has arrived with such an enormous, bloated sense of occasion, when it is seems that PRESIDENT have spent more time constructing a shallow empire around themselves than they have constructing a particularly interesting musical identity.
The masks, the mythology, the religious imagery, the ahem anonymity and the frankly staggering level of hype around them all seem to have successfully done their job. PRESIDENT arrived onto the musical landscape with the sort of fanfare usually reserved for bands who already have a catalogue of successful albums under their belt, unfortunately, Blood Of Your Empire sounds more like the soundtrack to a marketing campaign rather than the work of a band with something genuinely urgent to say.
Musically, this is polished, alternative metal for people who don’t like to get sticky fingerprints on their alternative metal. Huge guitars? Tick. Cinematic synths? Tick. Vocals drenched in effects? Double tick. Massive breakdowns? Of course. Electronic flourishes? Unbearably everywhere. The production is so clinically immaculate that you could probably perform open-heart surgery on the snare drum without risk of infection.
It’s no secret that the line between modern metal and over-produced pop has become increasingly difficult to locate, and Blood Of Your Empire is a album that doesn’t just blur that line, it completely erases it like an overexcited school kid with a new pot of Tipp-ex. There are moments where you genuinely wonder whether you’re listening to a metal band incorporating pop production techniques or a pop production team that has been instructed to create something heavier.
The frustrating thing is that if you strip away all the expensive-looking sonic wallpaper and musical diamantes, there are actually flashes of a decent band here. Dark Heaven has a melodic, hypnotic quality to it’s writing, Angel Wings occasionally finds some genuine meat on its bones, while Mercy at least demonstrates some strong (if slightly generic) understanding of melody and songwriting.
It’s unfortunate then, that PRESIDENT too often confuse scale with substance. Everything is enormous, yet it all feels very thin, like a film set made of plywood…all the fancy paint and camera trickery in the world can’t change the fact that the walls could collapse at the slightest breath of wind. The songs arrive pre-packaged, pre-digested and ready for immediate consumption without the slightest sign of a rough edge. Even the supposedly experimental sections can feel like they are being selected from an extensive library of software presets.
And that’s the biggest problem with Blood Of Your Empire, it is almost aggressively generic while desperately trying to convince you it’s revolutionary…and that is rather embarrassing.
I won’t lie to you, this is not the style of music that would be likely to find it’s way onto my speakers with any sort of regularity, but I can appreciate the skill of songwriting when there’s something there to appreciate. There’s nothing inherently wrong with accessible metal. There’s nothing wrong with electronics, pop melodies or immaculate production. But when everything is this carefully controlled, the music starts to lose the very thing that makes heavy (or any) music compelling in the first place…personality.
PRESIDENT have built an extraordinarily convincing façade, but it’s a bit of a meaningless task when there isn’t actually anything of value behind it to hide.
Best Paired with – A can of Martini, a pair of over-polished shoes and an adult diaper.
Reviewed by Bryn.
President – blood of your empire is out now on Kings of terrors Ltd.
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